Following the vacancy of the Thakurgaon-1 parliamentary seat due to the election of Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the President of the country, three heavyweight leaders have submitted nomination forms to secure the BNP party ticket for the upcoming by-election.
According to party sources, the three leaders who submitted their nomination papers are Thakurgaon District BNP President and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir's younger brother Mirza Faisal Amin, District BNP Vice-President and former Sadar Upazila Parishad Chairman Sultanul Ferdous Namrat Chowdhury, and District BNP Vice-President Obaidullah Haque Masud.
Mirza Faisal Amin submitted his nomination form to BNP Assistant Office Secretary Tariqul Islam Tenzing at the party's central office. At that time, top-ranking district leaders, including Thakurgaon District BNP General Secretary Paigam Ali, Upazila BNP President Abdul Hamid, and Pourashava BNP President Mohammad Sharif, were present.
Shortly afterwards, the other two nomination aspirants, Sultanul Ferdous Namrat Chowdhury and Obaidullah Haque Masud, also went to Naya Paltan to submit their respective nomination forms.
BNP Assistant Office Secretary Tariqul Islam Tenzing stated that although interviews for these three candidates were conducted during a meeting of the party's nomination board at the BNP Chairperson's office on Friday (September 18), the final candidate's name has not been announced yet.
However, multiple party sources indicate that District BNP President and the President's younger brother, Mirza Faisal Amin, will likely contest as the final candidate for this seat, while another will be kept as a dummy candidate. If both nominations remain valid, one of them will withdraw from the race.
Meanwhile, the BNP candidate will face a tough contest against Jamaat-e-Islami. The electoral battle in the Thakurgaon-1 constituency is steadily heating up between two primary contenders: Mirza Faisal and Jamaat candidate Delawar.
Yunus Ali, a sugarcane farmers' leader at the Thakurgaon Sugar Mill and former upazila chairman, believes the main contest will be fought between Mirza Faisal Amin and Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Delawar Hossain, a former central president of Islami Chhatra Shibir. He noted that the constituency has around 130,000 Hindu and Adivasi voters, which is expected to play a major role in the electoral equation.
On the other hand, a different sentiment prevails among general voters. Fazlu Haque, a resident of Hariharpur village in Sadar upazila, mentioned that although campaigns by both BNP and Jamaat candidates are gaining momentum, general voters are not displaying the same level of enthusiasm as seen in the past. Another local resident, Abul Kalam, remarked that conscious voters might cast their ballots in favor of the BNP candidate to secure government facilities, handle official favors, and uphold the honor of the President.
Mirza Faisal Amin has already wrapped up formal election preparation meetings, while Jamaat candidate Delawar Hossain remains equally active in the field.
In the 13th parliamentary election, BNP's then-Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had defeated the Jamaat candidate by a margin of about one hundred thousand votes to get elected as an MP. He subsequently served as a minister before stepping down from the BNP and his ministerial portfolio to take oath as the President.
To recall, on August 20, then-Member of Parliament and BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was elected as the 23rd President of the country through votes cast by members of parliament. The parliamentary secretariat declared the seat vacant on August 21. According to the election schedule announced by the Election Commission, voting for the Thakurgaon-1 by-election will take place via EVMs on October 29.
— Daily Best News Desk • Fearless in the search for truth
Reported by Mansur Ali Sarker, Thakurgaon • Edited by the Daily Best News desk. Send corrections to [email protected].
